White Plains: Sloane Stephens will lead the US Fed Cup team that is without the Williams sisters for the World Group first-round against Italy on February 9 and 10. US captain Mary Joe Fernandez also included doubles specialist Liezel Huber and rookies Varvara Lepchenko and Jamie Hampton.
Stephens is ranked a career-high No. 17 after beating Serena Williams to reach the semi-finals of the Australian Open. She is in line to make her Fed Cup singles debut against the Italians.
Serena Williams, who hurt her back in the quarter-final loss to Stephens, played in the most recent US match in the Fed Cup - a 5-0 victory over Ukraine in a World Group playoff in April last year.
The match will be played on indoor red clay in Rimini, Italy. The Italian team is led by No. 7 Sara Errani and No. 16 Roberta Vinci.
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Fed Cup is the premier team competition in women's tennis, launched in 1963 to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the International Tennis Federation (ITF). The competition was known as the Federation Cup until 1995.
The men's equivalent of th ...
Serena Jameka Williams is an American professional tennis player and a former world no. 1. The Women's Tennis Association has ranked her world no. 1 in singles on five separate occasions.
She became the world no. 1 for the first time on ...
Venus Ebony Starr Williams is a former World No. 1 American tennis player who, as of May 11, 2009, is ranked World No. 3. She has won the Wimbledon singles title the last two years and is the reigning Wimbledon and Australian Open doubles cham ...
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